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[Press Release: April 5th, 2005] De Burca warns of possible privatisation of water-metering in WicklowFollowing a recent meeting of the Water and Environmental Services Strategic Policy Committee of Wicklow County Council, Green Party councillor Deirdre de Burca has warned of the possible privatisation of water metering in County Wicklow.The Green Party councillor claims that during a discussion on water services for the county, the issue of water-metering was raised. Committee members were informed that a preliminary report on the implementation of the metering scheme for the county was being prepared by consultants and that several possibilities were being examined, including the complete privatisation of the service. "In effect we were told that the possibility of private companies installing, servicing, and monitoring the water meters and collecting the rates was being considered by the consultants" says de Burca. "Of course domestic properties will not be subject to water-metering because the Irish government got a derogation for private homes under the EU Water Framework Directive but all other properties including businesses, hotels, guest houses, and even schools and community facilities will apparently be subject to water metering. The council has estimated that the charges to be collected will amount to approximately 6 million euros annually". De Burca warns that the complete privatisation of this services is likely to have the same disastrous consequences as the total privatisation of waste collection services in the county. "What happens is that by privatising these services, we largely remove them from under democratic control" she says. "Private profit-making companies are then in a position where they are charging for essential public services such as water." The Green Party councillor claims that "the current obsession with privatisating what have to date been public services is just approaching the ridiculous". She points out that while the Water and Environmental Services Strategic Policy Committee of the council is supposed to develop policy, the issue of whether the water-metering should be privatised has been referred out to private consultants for their recommendations. "It is not clear whether the members of the council's Strategic Policy Committee will have any say in whether the service is to be privatised or not" she says.
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